The following editorial was published Feb. 26 by The St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

About 70 percent of Missouri voters in November approved a constitutional amendment aimed at getting big money out of state politics. This vote became necessary because, eight years earlier, a Republican Legislature and governor had overturned limits on campaign contributions approved by 74 percent of voters in 1994.

Twice in 22 years, a supermajority said it doesn’t want big donors running Missouri’s government. A loud popular mandate doesn’t matter to wealthy donors and their minions in Jefferson City, who assume voters have short attention spans.

After the Legislature and Gov. Matt Blunt thumbed their noses at the 1994 law and ushered in no-limits rules in 2008, six- and seven-figure contributions became commonplace.

So Fred Sauer of Clayton, a very conservative Republican, took it upon himself to get Amendment 2 on November’s ballot. The intent was clear: “The people of the State of Missouri hereby find and declare … that the interests of the public are best served by limiting campaign contributions, providing for full and timely disclosure of campaign contributions, and strong enforcement of campaign finance requirements.”

The public be damned. Special interests are now trying to find a way around this one, too. It’s a constitutional amendment, so it’s a little trickier. The Legislature can’t merely override the measure like it did with the 1994 law.

Multiple court challenges have been filed. The Missouri Ethics Commission is working overtime interpreting the law’s basic provisions. It has ruled that Amendment 2 didn’t apply donation limits to candidates for local offices. But it further ruled that corporate contributions to races like that for St. Louis mayor are forbidden. As a result, four candidates in the March 7 Democratic mayoral primary have had to return $71,000 in donations.

But then there’s this: Jason Rosenbaum of St. Louis Public Radio reports that because contribution limits don’t apply to city- and county-level candidates, local politicians could turn themselves into super PACs or laundromats.

Say you’re a big donor who wants to give a million dollars to help a gubernatorial candidate. Amendment 2 says you can give no more than $2,600 per election directly to any candidate for state office. But you could give $1 million to a local officeholder — a county commissioner, for example — who could then set up an independent expenditure committee to help your gubernatorial candidate.

None of this is in the spirit of Amendment 2, nor is it what voters wanted. Nor did voters know that Eric Greitens would benefit to the tune of nearly $2 million in anonymous money through a loophole in federal campaign laws and then, having been elected governor, run around the state making speeches about ethics.

Instead of looking for loopholes, big donors and their pet politicians should abide by the voters’ will.